Harvard University administrators have confirmed they searched the emails of deans as part of an investigation into a leak of a student cheating scandal.

BBC: Harvard University file picture

In another MOOC she took run by a University of Pennsylvania professor, a half-dozen teaching assistants shepherded student discussion online and cheating was much less pervasive, she said.

WSJ: Web Classes Grapple With Stopping Cheats

Dr McLone also noted evidence of more high-tech cheating in other countries, giving an example of a student in Poland who brought a lucky mascot into exams which turned out to be a disguised radio receiver.

BBC: News | Education | British students 'cheat less'

People are more likely to lie or cheat if others are lying or cheating, or if a member of another social group (such as a student wearing a sweatshirt from a rival university) visibly flouts the rules.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

Cheating rates rise through middle school and by high school, 51% of students admit to cheating on a test in the past year, and 74% say they have copied another student's homework, according to a 2012 survey of 23, 000 high-school students by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, in Los Angeles, a nonprofit character-education organization.

WSJ: By SUE SHELLENBARGER